"When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali." Mt 4:12
The gospels tell us little about Jesus' early life. Although Matthew's gospel has an infancy narrative and reminds us that Joseph took Jesus and Mary to Egypt to flee the wrath of Herod, we know nothing of their life together in Egypt or what their life was like when they returned to Palestine after Herod's death.
The next we hear of Jesus he is baptized by John in the Jordan, and between verses 11 and 12 in the 4th chapter of Matthew's gospel a year goes by before Jesus hears of John's imprisonment prompting him to move from his boyhood home in Nazareth to Capernaum in Galilee.
Why Capernaum in the region of Zebulun and Napthali? Most commentators suggest that Jesus moves to Galilee because, like the prophets, he wanted to go to the most forgotten and despised of places, areas where the Torah was only loosely lived, since that is how the Messiah would be known.
Little has changed in the intervening years. If we want to know who the Messiah is and how he acts, we do ourselves a favor by going to those places where no one expects much from the people living there. Ours is a nomadic God who accompanies those most in need, and unless we acknowledge our own weakness, we will never know God who seeks out the lost.
Today, visit a place within yourself that you fear or despise.
Have you ever been touched and lifted up by people from whom you expected little?
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